Coyotes' Bissonnette contributes skill, fighting

Coyotes forward Paul Bissonnette walked into the Toyota Club after a recent practice at Jobing.com Arena and pulled out a bar stool to sit down. He unscrewed the cap off the water bottle he was carrying, his knuckles still ripe from a recent bout with Columbus tough guy Jared Boll.

"They're real banged up," he said as he examined his hands.

A red gash the width of a nickel wrapped around his pinkie on his right hand, and a calloused bump extended out from his palm under his left thumb.

He folded his hands into his lap and stared at the laptop, watching a handful of his fights from the season.

"That was my first fight (with Phoenix)," Bissonnette said as his Oct. 12 fight at San Jose flashed on the screen. "Jody Shelley. I don't think I've ever seen this one yet."

On the screen, Bissonnette and Shelley drop their mitts after a faceoff and exchange right-handed punches.

"I was excited to get a decent fight with Jody Shelley," he said. "He's one of the tougher guys in the league and to start making a name for yourself - it was a good way to start. And especially show your new teammates you're willing to fight guys like that."

Since joining the Coyotes as a waiver-wire pickup three days before the season started, Bissonnette has settled into the role of team enforcer.

"That's my job," he explained. "If I forget what my role is, I might not be here."

But Bissonnette is working to shatter the one-dimensional player label assigned to fighters in the NHL: He's just as eager to make a statement with his play as he is with his fists.

"I take pride in my game," he said. "I just wanna get better as a player."

Bissonnette hasn't always carried the enforcer title. As a kid in Ontario, he played as a defenseman. He played that position all through minor hockey, the Ontario Hockey League and when he split time between the East Coast Hockey League and the American Hockey League as recently as two seasons ago. During his 101-game career in the ECHL, he scored 16 goals and 69 points and was a plus-16.

"I think deep down in my heart, or whatever you want to say - my brain - I'm programmed as a defenseman," Bissonnette said. "I find I don't have so much scoring touch around the offensive net because I'm constantly worried about getting back and playing defensively."

Fighting, however, has always been a part of his game. Bissonnette wasn't the kid picking fights at school. He was calm, friendly - even energetic.

"I had ADD, but that's about it," Bissonnette said. "But who doesn't, right?"

He fought to stick up for himself and now fights to stick up for his teammates.

Bissonnette watched his Dec. 21 scuffle against Marc Methot of the Blue Jackets.

During the fight, he yanked Methot's collar with his left hand and jabbed at his jaw.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

Occasionally, Bissonnette mixed in a right-handed punch.

"I really hadn't seen many guys do it, and I just kinda started doing it," Bissonnette said of his grab-and-jab technique. " . . . I've been criticized sometimes for over abusing it but sometimes when you get tied up, those are the only punches you can get in. And it also sets you up for your right (punch), too, . . . keeps them off balance. Like when you're getting little jabs in your face, it's annoying and you're moving, right, so like I've had times where I've been doing that and the guy tries to avoid it and he puts his face right into your right-hand punch."

Bissonnette started using that technique in 2007, four years after being drafted by Pittsburgh, when the organization switched him to forward because it thought playing that position was his best chance to make the NHL.

"It was weird," he said. "You go from being a skilled D-man, quote-unquote, to being a fourth-line forward. Whatever. I'm in the NHL, right? Can't complain."

Transitioning into a full-time fighter wasn't difficult. Bissonnette was already averaging 10 to 12 fights a year since turning pro. The challenge was proving he deserved a spot in the lineup and could play as a forward. Juggling both duties - enforcer and player - has been a struggle.

"You can't prepare normally," Bissonnette said. " . . . I have to concentrate about playing well. I don't get much ice (time). So when I do get out there, I gotta play well and you gotta worry about a fight, too.

" . . . It's not easy. I'm not gonna lie. I get nervous thinking about both. I get nervous before every game."

Bissonnette knows which enforcers are on what teams, and he readies himself for the task. During the game he listens to the coaching staff because they let him know when a fight would be a wise move and when it would only give the other team momentum.

"He's done a good job in being very physical when he has to and showing discipline when he has to," coach Dave Tippett said.

That discipline was on display Tuesday night. Canucks forward Alex Burrows slashed Coyotes forward Radim Vrbata across the back of the knees. Later, Bissonnette finished a hard check on Canucks forward Daniel Sedin.

"He sends a message to the team in a different way," assistant coach Doug Sulliman said, explaining that "if anyone takes liberties with our players, (Bissonnette is) the first one to step in and make things right."

During practices, Bissonnette works one-on-one with Sulliman and assistant coach Dave King, fine tuning his stick handling and puck work. "He's just a raw talent right now, and he's got a lot of upside because he's all in when he plays. He competes really hard," Sulliman said.

Despite his progress, Bissonnette was a healthy scratch for nearly three weeks earlier this season.

When he returned to the lineup Dec. 16 at Toronto in front of family and friends, Bissonnette was motivated.

Bissonnette scored his second goal of the season in the Coyotes' 6-3 victory. It was the first game his dad, Camille, had seen him play in the NHL in person.

"He was just proud," Bissonnette said. "He was happy. He was excited. He was pretty excited to go back home and talk to everyone about it because that's what they do, you know, old guys."

Bissonnette has played in every game since.

"You earn the respect of your teammates by fighting, obviously," he explained. "When you can play also, it's like, 'Wow, this guy is not just a plug.' "

Bissonnette is happy with how his game is evolving in Phoenix. His time here has given him an opportunity to set a goal he couldn't dream about when he was shuffling between the ECHL and the AHL-to be a mainstay in the NHL.

"You gotta take it in stride, right?" Bissonnette said. "To be a career NHLer would be fair to say but once you establish that and you've worked hard towards that and four years down the road I'm still in the NHL and I know I'm gonna be in the NHL, then it starts getting to be I wanna win a Stanley Cup. I wanna play on a competitive team.

"It comes with age, right? You change. You change as an individual, and right now it's I wanna establish myself as a career NHLer. That's my goal."

Back in the Toyota Club, Bissonnette is ready to go grab lunch. But before he goes, he wants to watch his Dec. 17 fight in Columbus against Boll.

"Yeah, that's a good one," he said. "We're (expletive) throwing bombs in this one. He catches me right there. We actually punch each other in the face at the exact same time."

Bissonnette then replays that sequence.

"It's (expletive) pretty cool," he said. "I wish we could get slo-mo. Watch - boom. Yeah he got me square in the face on that one. That's what it's about, man, for me. It's fun."

It's also his job. That won't change. And he's content knowing he can fulfill that role for the Coyotes.

"I'll never be a skilled guy. I'll never be top two lines. Maybe third - couple injuries, maybe," Bissonnette said with a smile. "You never know."